Sunday, Midday

     Church was a weekly reoccurring scheduled 'family' activity to the Sanders' family. This specific 'family' scheduled activity meant that Victor and Rudy would repeatedly complain about not being able to read or do homework, or work on any of their projects, while Julia was fuzzing over what to wear without looking too dull but acceptable to their mother, and Frey was fighting his sleep.

Than there was the fight over who was going to sit shotgun—whereas compared to normal people, neither of them wanted to sit in the front.

That would mean their mother would fire question after question about their week.

They usually solved that issue by playing 'rock-paper-scissors' and Frey never lost, simply because he refused to play and simply took place in the back seat while Victor and Rudy demanded for him to play. That would end in a fight, an angry mother and an awkward mass in church.

It was always a blast.

But that Sunday had been even worse, since Rudy and Victor were still at their father's place for a long weekend—with their remote-controlled cars—and their mother was still angry because Frey and Julia didn't buy the presents which she told them to get.

There was of course the issue that neither Frey nor Julia was interested on sitting in the front seat, next to their still angry mother, and when they both sat in the back, their mother demanded for one of them to sit in the front because she wasn't a taxi-driver.

Frey lost, and he plugged in earbuds to listen to music, because he really didn't feel like talking to his mother right then.

He was already angry and upset enough without her being a nuisance.

Luckily, on the way back, Arun was in the car with them, Julia was forced in the front seat, while Frey and Arun sat in the back in silence.

As soon as they got home, their mother had told both her at-home children to do homework, and since Arun was the decent guy he was, he came prepared and joined for a round of studying in the kitchen, under the watchful eye of a still angry mother.

Arun, by now, was used to Frey's schedule, and he never said anything about it. He just joined or helped Frey whenever he could.

They were working in silence, every so often helping each other out by explaining things, when Frey's phone started buzzing in his pocket.

He retrieved the device to see what made it go off, finding a notification from Sparkl.

He hadn't been on it for a while—like always when he had a bad month. He turned off most of the notifications anyway, but not those who told him he had received a 'Sparkling Like'. Which meant someone was very interested in him, and that still piqued his interest.

He unlocked the device and opened the app, wondering which girl had suddenly developed an interest in him. He was almost sure he had at least chatted with every girl in South Cedar.

But to find out who had sent him the Sparkling Like, he needed to swipe the same girl right too. So, he simply swiped all of them to the right, until the app notified him, he had a Sparkling Match with a girl named Vicky O'Malley.

He deleted the other girls first, before he sent Vicky a message to start up a conversation.

"Frey Sanders!" His mother's annoyingly high-pitched tone screeched through the kitchen and Frey barely had time to lock his screen, before she snatched the device from his hold. "You are supposed to be studying, not playing around on your phone."

"Mom!" Frey rolled his eyes and held out his hand. "Give it back."

"No, you'll get it back tonight, after picking up Rudy and Victor."

"Make me pick them up, and I'm going to stay there too. Give me back my phone. Now." He demanded, anger again flaring up inside him.

"Attitude." She simply said, before leaving the kitchen.

Arun—face flushed because he was an awkward person by nature—shuffled in his seat but remained silent and focused on his homework.

Julia practically did the same, but not without sending him a sad smile.

"Mom!" Frey shouted after her, shoving his chair backwards. It tipped over and came to a bouncing stop at the tiled floor. "Give it back!"

"You are not throwing chairs or doors and throwing a tantrum, Frey." His mother walked back to him, waving a warning finger.

"For Christ sake, I'll be eighteen in two months. You don't take away my phone like I'm a toddler, and you don't get to fucking boss me around. I'm so done with that." He was so done with having is life scheduled in boxes by his mother. He was done being controlled by her, treated like a baby, held on a tight lease. Punished for even the slightest step out of her unrealistically straight line. Frey was done.

This was where he drew the line.

His mother simply raised an eyebrow, her hands in her sides, still holding onto his phone.

"Give it back."

"After you picked up Rudy and Victor, you'll get it back. Go do your homework."

"You know what, mom?" Frey hissed in her face. "Fuck. You." He swirled around on his feet—not getting away in time to dodge her hand slapping the side of his head—barging out of the kitchen, and towards his room. He just needed some necessities, and then he'd leave. He slammed the door in his mother's face, and locked it quickly, before throwing a bunch of clothes into a bag. He sent a text from his laptop to Arun's phone to tell him he was leaving, all the while his mother was banging on the door, demanding for him to open it.

He did, but only once he had lifted the shoulder strap of his bag over his head and was ready to leave.

"Phone." He simply demanded, not even flinching when her hand slapped his cheek, once, twice, three times. He stood there stoically, with his hand stretched to her, telling her to give him the phone.

"You do not tell your mother to fuck off!" She screamed at him, slapping him again. She was hysterically, and he was getting angrier every passing second. He eventually grabbed her arm, pulled the phone from her hold and barged right past her. He wouldn't ever want to hit his mother, not even after she hit him multiple times. He wouldn't ever want to hurt her.

But he had felt like he was seconds away from doing exactly that, and that thought, those feelings, they scared him.

And they only fuelled his need to get the hell out of the house right then. He needed to, before things would spiral out of control.

He ignored her, he barged past Julia, who stared at him with fear in her eyes, and to the front door, where Arun was already waiting with his bag pulled over a shoulder.

He didn't seem to feel awkward in that moment.

No, it calmed Frey down—only slightly—to see a sympathetic and understanding smile on the face of his best friend. Frey knew, if even Arun agreed with him, he was doing the right thing.

Which was why Frey left his mother's house, not knowing if he was going to return anytime soon.

     Frey arrived at his father's place in tears, Arun still by his side, both in silence. And the look of despair on his face, the tears, and the fact Arun even looked angry, was enough for his father to understand his mother crossed a line.

It wasn't even that bad what had happened, until she started hitting him.

He never had been hit before, and it didn't really hurt, but it was the meaning behind it that made that he never wanted to go back, ever again.

His father had taken over his bag and placed it in the spare bedroom that Victor and Rudy had used for the past two nights.

He told them to clean up their mess and grab their stuff. He was going to take them home early.

He told Frey to relax, that he could stay as long as he needed, and that they'd talk as soon as he dropped Victor and Rudy off at home.

He borrowed Frey's bike to make sure Victor and Rudy would have their bike to go to school tomorrow, and asked Arun to stay and make sure Frey was doing okay.

Frey loved that part about his father. The part that jumped into action and arranged whatever needed to be taken care off.

And he couldn't fight a small smile, when Julia sent him a short video where his parents were fighting with loud voices, while she was on the stairs with Rudy and Victor by her side, asking her what happened.

The video wasn't too long, and it was mostly his mother crying, and blaming his father for setting Frey up against her, but Frey had seen enough.

He didn't exactly know what he did, said or show to his father when he arrived, but his father had seen enough. Things needed to change.

And for starters, he told Frey to stay with him for now.

"For now?"

"I mean, you don't have to go back. You'll stay here for the next two months, and when you're eighteen, you can decide yourself. For now, I decide you're staying here, and I'm going to stay in contact with Julia to see how the rest is doing."

"What if mom freaks out and gets worse to them?" Frey whispered insecurely, pulling a blanket tighter around him.

Arun had left as soon as his father came back. They had ordered pizza, and his father even gave him a beer by the time it had arrived.

"I'm... going to buy a bigger apartment. I'll contact someone tomorrow."

"Why now, dad? Why not all those times before, when we tried to tell you how bad things were?"

"Because..." his father took in a deep breath. "I didn't think it was that bad."

"It didn't get worse, I just couldn't take it anymore. The whole schedule and everything. I want to be a normal teenager."

"For you to be a normal teenager, there needs to change more than just clearing your mother's schedule for you, Frey."

"Like?"

"Your drinking habits." His father smirked, since he just gave Frey a beer, and Frey chuckled a bit, taking a daring sip from his beer. "I don't want you to drink during a shift any longer. I've ignored it for far too long, and you hitting Daniel was a step too far."

Frey choked on his drink when his father mentioned him hitting Daniel two days ago. He still felt bad for doing so, but on the other hand, Daniel had it coming. "I... how... did he tell you?"

"No, there's camera's in my club, Frey. And when he barged out, I went to see what happened."

"Oh."

"It's something we'll discus later. For now, I'll leave you alone, and let you get some rest. You have to go to school tomorrow and after that, we'll talk."

And Frey already knew, when his father wanted to talk, there was going to be a serious talk.

But Frey knew things needed to change, because lately, his life had started to spiral out of control, and he wanted to take control again.

Starting by moving in with his father, finally.

Words: +/- 1871